Home alone

Dudu, is a 13 year old girl with severe cerebral palsy she can respond to sounds but does not talk and cannot sir unaided. One of our Home and Community Based Carers referred her to Onica,our nursing manager. When Onica arrived, she found Dudu sitting in the yard in her own excrement, her skin scaley from neglect. She had been given a bowl of food to share with the chickens who roam the yard. There was no one else at home in the small homestead. The nurse cleaned her up and chatted to her, making her more comfortable.
Nozenzo, our foster care supervisor also visited and gave some advice on how to manage money to the grandmother (who seemed to be the main carer)and helped her to open a bank account for Dudu's care dependency grant.
The next time when Onica arrived, she found the mother at home, hastily dipping Dudu in a bowl of water. "You're only cleaning her because you saw our car coming!", Onica remarked. The mother was aggressive and hostile, but Onica calmed her, empathising with how difficult it must be to have a severely handicapped child. Soon the mother was in tears as Onica's kind words melted her hard exterior. She said she felt angry at having a child like this and in addition, her other daughter of 16 in whom she had put all her hopes was now pregnant. She requested to see our chaplain for further counseling and support.
The grandmother, who had been caring for Dudu while her mother was away with a boyfriend was happy to hand back care to the mother. She had purchased some clothes for Dudu with her government grant and gave the remaining money to the mother for food. However, it turned out that the mother had just quarreled with her boyfriend, and now she had money in her pocket, she returned to him leaving Dudu worse off than before without any food at all.
We are now getting our social workers involved to see what they can do. Will the grandmother be willing to care for the child properly or must she be moved to a place of safety?